Return of the Fortress General
by LightRayPearlshipper
Summary: Four years ago, Ash was betrayed by the ones close to him after a tournament. He wandered for a while, then disappeared of the face of the planet. Now, the same tournament has come around and he's been invited. So have his old friends, enemies and one ally. If you think that Ash is weak, you're in for a surprise. Brace yourself... For the Return of the Fortress General.
1. Prologue

**Me: Welcome to my first abilityshipping story. This is not cliché so don't worry about it.**

**Anabel: A… bilityshipping? Hooray!**

**Me: This is a new shipping for me to write, but I've been reading a lot of this type recently so no need to worry.**

**Anabel: Wait… where's Ash?**

**Me: Ash… is currently not available. He'll be here soon.**

**Anabel: *Starts pouting* There can't be abilityshipping without him!**

**Me: I don't want to to repeat myself, Anabel.**

**Scott: Take it easy Anabel. Michael, I hope this current situation doesn't affect her battling. We all know how sensitive she is when it comes to Ash, and I'd hate to have to do the employer's job of kicking her.**

**Anabel: I'm not sensitive about Ash!**

**Me: Admit it. You are.**

**Scott: I'm not only your friend, but also your employer. I will do what I must to keep the Battle Frontier running properly.**

**Anabel: *Starts crying* Meany!**

**Me: Shush. You can do the disclaimer, okay?**

**Anabel: Fine. Michael… Michael doesn't own us, so… so don't sue him. Or else!**

**Me: *sigh* On with the fanfic. Or rather prologue.**

**Anabel: *Through tears* I want my Ashy.**

* * *

Punch. Left hook. Right hook. Block. Step back and launch and aura sphere. The process repeated itself multiple times. It was closing in on its one-hundredth loop when a potty man in a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses arrived on the scene.

"General," the potty man said, "It's good to see you again."

The man who was in the loop with a Lucario signaled for a stop and walked up to the potty man. He was quite roughed up but was clearly strong. He was wearing a now-tattered traditional aura guardians' uniform with a black insignia on the hat instead of a blue one. "Scott, I take it you have news for me," he said.

The potty man now known as Scott answered, "Of course General. The construction is complete. It's completely and fully functional now. It just needs your command."

"I understand," the aura guardian said. "I also take it that you have something else to tell me."

Scott looked uneasy for a moment, then remembered that his aura powers could've seen into his mind. "Yes, I do. There's an upcoming pokemon tournament coming up and seeing your training as a Frontier Brain complete, it would be a nice place to test your honed skills. It's simply known as the Master's tournament and comes around every four years. You went to the last one, if I remember correctly."

General grit his teeth as he remembered that event. "That's also when_ that_ happened." At hearing these words, a multitude of pokemon came out of the nearby bushes.

"You know, everyone misses you," Scott said. "This would be a great way to get yourself back into the world."

As he thought, a multitude of pokemon came out of the bushes. He saw their support and after a few minutes, responded, "I'll join."

Scott pulled out an envelope and handed it to General. "I take it you don't want your identity revealed. This envelope is a note explaining who you are, what the registration process for you will be, and will give you your alias. During the tournament, you shall be known as General of Tojoh Fortress. The tournament takes place in one month and will be held at the Indigo Plateau, as it is neutral ground because Kanto has no official champion. I'm sure you know this already, but only league champions, Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Regional Champions, Frontier Brains, and other specific people invited by high-ranking league members like me, champions, or even Mr. Goodshow may participate. I'll see you there when the time comes." And with that, Scott pulled out a pokeball, calling out a Pidgeot, and flew off the peak of Mt. Silver.

The pokemon in the bushes came over to General, who was their trainer. One by one, he recalled them into their pokeballs, except for a Pikachu, Lucario, and Charizard. Pikachu climbed into a backpack in which he put the pokeballs away into and General shouldered it. Then, he climbed onto Charizard's back with Lucario.

"I think it's about time we get re-acquainted with the world, don't you?"

* * *

**Me: Ooh, mysterious.**

**Scott: I think we all know who General is. It's-**

**Me: *Covers Scott's big mouth* Shut up.**

**Anabel: Who is it? Is he the eighth frontier brain you've been talking about? Does this have to do with why you keep on driving past my house in a truck with a bunch of workers and tools? **

**Me: Shut up.**

**Anabel: *Ignores me* You said he's from Tojoh Fortress. Is it near Tojoh Falls where I live?**

**Me: *yells* SHUT UP!**

**Anabel: *Cowers in fear***

**Me: Shut up before you give anything away to the readers! That goes for you too Scott.**

**Scott: *Mocking voice* Ooh, I'm cowering in fear.**

**Me: *Grits teeth* Oh, you will be. Salamence, Metagross, deal with justice! *Throws pokeballs for Salamence and Metagross***

**Scott: *Runs away***

**Me: Salamence, Metagross, chase him. Make sure he doesn't get away and bring him back here. He will pay for mocking me.**

**Salamence: Mence.**

**Metagross: Gross.**

**Me: Sorry about that, readers. Just getting things back under control. Anyways, who is this man known as General? What will happen in the tournament? And what other dark forces could be lurking in the shadows?**

**Anabel: Michael, we all know it's.**

**Me: SHUT UP! *Throws up another two pokeballs* Magnezone and Gastrodon, deal with Anabel for me please.**

**Anabel: *Runs away screaming***

**Me: *Takes in deep breath* Sorry again. Anyways, review if you have something that could help in a positive way. The prologue is really pro, wouldn't you agree? I should log it. Okay, enough with the bad puns. Favorite if you liked it, don't if you didn't. Don't forget to R&R. Michael out**

**Anabel: *Still screaming in the distance***

**Me: *Sigh* Just use your pokemon to defend yourself. But they're probably fainted already, anyways…**


	2. Arrival at the Games

**Me: Welcome to the first official chapter of Return of the Fortress General. From now on, the chapters will be much longer.**

**Anabel: Can we start the story already? I want my Ashy.**

**Scott: I'd hate to fire you because of emotional distractions, but I do think that you should just get started.**

**Me: Geez, Scott, okay. Just a few words I'd like to give. I'm debating on if I should use Fortress General or Fortress Lord. Please let me know in the reviews. Also, aura speech and telepathy will be in double quoted italics.**

**Scott: Is that all?**

**Me: Pretty much. Anyways, Anabel has been behaving well lately so I'll let her do the disclaimer this time.**

**Anabel: Okay. Michael doesn't own us, so please don't sue him.**

**Me: On with the fanfic!**

* * *

A man in an aura guardian uniform walked up to a giant stadium. He had a Pikachu on his shoulder and many pokeball around his waist, on his chest, and even around his neck. There were more pokeballs in a backpack he was wearing.

As he approached the automatic doors of the Indigo Plateau Pokemon Center, he pulled out a clean, white envelope. People looked over to him and pointed, whispering to their friends. He cast glances, and, standing an intimidating 6' 7", scared the people away. When he reached the nurse's desk, he slid the envelope across the desk.

"I'd like to register for the tournament," he began. "Name is General. Don't worry about the other stuff. Scott wrote the information in the letter enclosed in the envelope."

"O-okay."

She took the envelope and entered the information onto the registration computer from the enclosed letter as he walked out. However, on his way out, he brushed against someone who was coming in… or rather a group of _someones_. Apparently, fate really hates him because these someones just had to be _those people_ and Scott + the frontier brains. They were arguing, but as he brushed past, they stopped. Or at least Scott did, causing everyone else to stop moving.

"General, I see you came after all," he said. General simply nodded back and kept on walking

'_Strange character,'_ Anabel thought. _'I wonder what I can get from his mind, even though I don't like to go reading them.'_

While she was trying to read his mind, May and Max started yelling at General. Apparently, he had brushed her "a little too hard" or something like that. Inside General's mind, she immediately came into a wall before literally getting kicked out.

In the real world, General gave her a glare. "It's not polite to go invade others' minds, Anabel. Patience is a virtue and in due time, you will learn about your new co-worker."

As he walked off, Anabel and the other brains turned to Scott.

"Co-worker?" Anabel asked.

Scott soon became nervous about all the looks he was getting from his brains. Finally, he cracked. "Okay, okay, geez, let me explain." At hearing this, they quickly became silent, eager to hear what he had to say. "Anabel, you know how I've been driving past your house a lot with workers?" She gave not only a nod, but a tantrum.

"Of course I notice! You make so much racket that the wild Beedrill and the Gyarados living in the lake are complaining to me! Ugh!"

"Calm down, okay? Well the reason is because…" He gave a dramatic pause. "I've been working on the latest Battle Frontier Facility for the eighth brain. However, he wanted to keep it as secret as possible."

"So what's the facility?" Brandon asked.

"I can't state that at this time," Scott replied. "How about you all get registered for the tournament?

The brains grumbled about this, but seeing as they wouldn't get any more information out of him, agreed.

*Insert Line Break Here*

Meanwhile, in the nearby forest area by the nearby lake, a certain aura guardian was setting up a camp. General released his pokemon from their pokeballs. Out came a large amount of different species. There was Venesaur, Blastoise, Charizard, Pidgeot, Primeape, Kingler, Muk, Alakazam, Gengar, Tauros, Typhlosion, Feraligatr, Meganium, Noctowl, Heracross, Snorlax, Lapras, Sceptile, Blaziken, Swampert, Crawdaunt, Torkoal, Salamence (Shiny), Metagross, another Metagross (Shiny), Swellow, Shiftry, Gallade, Aggron, Skarmory, Flygon, Milotic, Ninetails, Glalie, Kingdra, all of the Eeveelutions, Dragonite, Donphan, Tyranitar, Infernape, Torterra, Empoleon, Garchomp, Staraptor, Gliscor, Floatzel, Spiritomb, Weavile, Unfezant, Samurott, Emboar, Serperior, Scrafty, Leavanny, Seismetoad, Gigalith, Krookodile, Hydreigon, Excadrill, Scolipede, Reuniculus, Zoroark, Haxorus, Braviary, Lucario, and of course Pikachu from his shoulder. He fingered the six Cherish Balls around his neck, contemplating on whether or not to let out his special surprises or not, but eventually decided against it.

"Alright everyone, let's clear this area," he ordered. "Set up small cabins, then get to work training. Lucario, you'll be sparring with me like usual."

They simply nodded and got to work, all except for Lucario. The water pokemon took twigs and built small formations in the lake while the grass pokemon cut trees to make huts for everyone. The fire types burnt down some trees in a controlled fashioned and started a bonfire. Everyone else did miscellaneous jobs.

"_Master Ash, I sense something is wrong,_" Lucario said. "_Is it _them_?_"

"It's fine, Lucario," General, or Ash, responded. "Let's spar."

After a while, all the pokemon had finished their jobs, but General Ash noticed a large group of human aura signatures approaching. Given the signal, all of his pokemon hid away into various places.

When the signatures, or Frontier Brains and _them_, arrived, they found Ash meditating. Immediately, Max and May charged him, still apparently upset from earlier. However, they were thrown back by an invisible force.

Opening his eyes, Ash said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"You still haven't apologized for earlier!" May objected. "We were in the middle of a very important argument."

"Yeah!" Max agreed.

"Important or not, an argument is still an argument," he said wisely. "By walking between your groups, I broke it up, did I not?"

"Argh, fine!" Max cried out. "I challenge you to a battle. I'll show you what happens when you get rude with us!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Max," Scott interjected.

" Leave him be, Scott. Very well," Ash said. "I'll see how well I fair compared to other competitors even though this will hardly be a balanced match. Although, this tournament is very well known, I'm surprised how a weakling like you could win a league tournament."

"I'll show you! Gallade, I choose you!" Max tossed out a pokeball, revealing a large, human-like pokemon with sharp arms.

General simply walked over to the bushes, waited a second, and out came Pikachu. "We have a challenger, Pikachu. Are you up for it?"

"Pi pika!"

"Good." He turned his attention back to his opponent. "Let's make this quick. Pikachu I choose you! You can have the first move.

"Alright! Gallade use psycho cut!" Gallade concentrated psychic energy into his arms and formed that energy into blades. Then he sent them flying at Pikachu who made no attempt to dodge. The blades made contact with an explosion.

"Alright, direct hit!" Max cried out. "That ought to show you!" But when the dust cleared, it showed Pikachu without any scratches on it.

"Chaa," Pikachu said, bored.

"What?!" the Petalburg sibling cried out in alarm.

"Tch. You call that an attack?" Ash asked. "You don't know what you're up against, kid. Pikachu, use thunderbolt." Pikachu reacted instantly, firing a stream of electricity at Gallade. The attack made contact and Gallade quickly fainted. Pikachu ran back into General's arm and went to sleep.

Group 2 quickly left, leaving just the frontier brains and Scott.

"Well, Scott, I think you owe us an explanation of why he called Anabel a co-worker," Brandon said. The rest of the brains quickly agreed.

"Fine, I'll tell you," Scott resigned. "General here is the eighth frontier brain of the new Battle Fortress near the Kanto-Johto border. He is the true ultimate test and will bring out the bond between trainer and pokemon as well as force trainers to break limits that they never thought possible. If they thought Brandon was a challenge, then they're no match for General. His other responsibilities are maintaining the fortress, keeping peace at the border area, etc."

There was silence.

Finally, Brandon spoke up. "I don't recall you ever inviting a trainer to become a frontier brain. Even though there were few to defeat me, you never offered them a position within our ranks. Also, they have to go through a whole year of training on how to become a frontier brain."

"I was his mentor for that," Scott said. "Now, I believe he would like his peace. There's a reason why he didn't go crazy from spending four years on top of that hellhole known as Mt. Silver."

Lucy objected. "Hold it. I think we should test his skills. We only got one snapshot of his battling and that was from a noob trainer."

"Yeah," Anabel agreed. "Besides, earlier, I got blocked out of his mind by some force. By the type and his attire, I'd say he's an aura guardian."

"If he's as great as you say he is, then how about we have a seven vs one battle," Greta suggested. "All of us versus him."

"Do what you want," Scott said. "Just leave him alone and don't let your pokemon get hurt."

The other brains shuddered at what Scott had said, but quickly recovered. Then, they sent out their pokemon to battle. Noland called upon Articuno, Greta sent out Medicham, Tucker sent out Swampert, Lucy sent out Seviper, Spenser sent out Claydol, Anabel sent out Espeon, and Brandon sent out Registeel. Although General tried to wake up Pikachu from his nap, he wouldn't wake up. Eventually, he gave up and called one of his pokemon out of the forest. His choice was Sceptile. Because Scott had already left for his hotel that he had reserved, there was no referee and the trainers had to judge for themselves.

"As the challengers, I'll give you lot the first moves," General said.

"Bad move. Medicham, Focus Punch."

"Articuno, Ice Beam."

"Claydol, Psybeam."

"Swampert, Mud Shot with a grace!"

"Seviper, Poison Fang."

'_Espeon, fire a Zap Cannon.'_

"Registeel, use Flash Cannon!"

"Sceptile, dodge and charge up SolarBeam," General commanded. Sceptile gracefully dodged all of the attacks and charged up the bulbs on his back. When he was charged up, General gave the final command. "Full power SolarBeam, launch one at each of the pokemon, but put two on Registeel." Sceptile amazingly fired one SolarBeam at each of the pokemon and with each SolarBeam, one of the glowing bulbs on his back dimmed.

The Frontier Brains simply stood there in shock, seeing all of their pokemon taken down by a single attack each. Coming to their senses, they each recalled their pokemon back to their pokeballs, giving them thanks.

"Good job, Sceptile," General said. "Take a break now."

"Tile." Sceptile ran back into the woods, looking slightly winded from the attacks he launched, but otherwise fine.

"How did you do that?" Brandon asked. "This is unreal!"

"Through years of vigorous training and multiple Limit Breaks," General responded. "After I was betrayed by my so-called 'friends', I took all of my pokemon and fled from my home. I went and retrieved my other pokemon friends and family that I had let free to do what they had to do and researched for one of the first times in my life. It was then that I was blessed with the knowledge of Limit Break, my other friends, and the family inside these Cherish Balls." As he said the last part, he fingered each of the Cherish Balls hanging around his neck and the Master Ball on his pokeball necklace. "I became a frontier brain after looking for Scott again. It was almost three years since I completed the Battle Frontier. Then, I fled to Mount Silver to train and achieve Limit Break for all of my pokemon. Four years have passed since I competed in the last Masters tournament. Four years since the betrayal after the Unova league."

The brains stood there, mortified by his story. "How did you grow two extra bulbs in Sceptile's back?"

"Hard work and the breaking of multiple limits," General responded.

Anabel's brain was working hard. _'Unorthodox strategies. The strong bond with his Pikachu that I sense. There was only one trainer to defeat me. I only know one trainer just like General.'_

"Come on, everyone, let's give General his peace," Brandon said. The brains followed his lead of leaving the clearing, but Anabel stayed, deep in thought. "Anabel, come on!"

"Come, young one," Spenser said.

Anabel snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh, wait a minute. I think I'll stay here with General. I'd like to learn more about our new co-worker, especially since his facility is near Tojoh falls."

"Okay, just make sure you come back before check-in is over," Greta said. The brains left, leaving Anabel and General by the lake with the pokemon.

Once they were out of earshot, General began the conversation. "What did you want to know. You won't get much information."

She responded with one word. "Ash."

General looked unfazed. "So you figured it out. I'm surprised that the other brains didn't put the puzzle pieces together. The only person to defeat the Battle Frontier ever. How could they forget?"

Anabel ran up to him and threw her arms around him. "Do you know how much I've missed you?" she cried into him.

"I guess there's no point in hiding it anymore," Ash said. "I'm the eighth frontier brain, Fortress Lord Ash, General of Tojoh Fortress."

She broke off of him before speaking again through tears. "Ash…" That was all she could say.

"I'd appreciate it if you keep my true identity a secret from those who have yet to figure it out until the end of the tournament," he said.

"Okay," she agreed. The two sat down on a rock that had not been blasted by the earlier efforts to create shelter by the pokemon. They just sat there for a while until Anabel asked him a question.

"Ash, remember when you were challenging me for the Ability symbol?"

"Yeah. I was really innocent, not knowing the true horrors of the world and its evil."

"Do you think you could try to read my heart again?" she asked.

"I-I-… okay."

He turned towards her and looked straight into her hopeful lilac eyes. Manifesting aura, he shot straight into them and found himself in a sea of emotions, thoughts, and memories. He looked around at each and every one of them, but he always felt a burning feeling of desire for something… no, someone. Then, he found something quite peculiar – one of her wishes was mixed in with her thoughts. It showed… It showed a thought of eternal love mixed with other happy emotions. The label? Anabel's greatest desire.

He snapped back at the real world with their faces inches apart. He saw what she was leaning in for, what she was hoping for. "No," he said. She froze and slowly pulled away, tears welling up in her closed eyes, although he could not see it.

"You read my heart," she put simply. "You read it and know its greatest desires, darkest fears." She opened her tearful eyes. "You know that… I-I love… you…"

Ash stayed silent here for a moment. Then, in a calming tone, he spoke. "I can't return those feelings right now. My heart is filled with darkness."

"Then let me help you get rid of that darkness by replacing it with love."

"I've tried to distract myself for years. The darkness still remains. Four years have passed since the incident and now those traitors will pay for what they did."

"If you tell someone, maybe they can help you drain what is consuming you."

"I refuse to speak of that event until the time is right," he responded. "You will know when the time is right." And with that, he walked into his cabin that he built earlier with the help of his pokemon and left her alone. Broken and feeling helpless, she said, "When you're ready to talk and heal wounds of the past, find us." With that, she headed away, towards the hotel that Scott had reserved rooms for everyone at.

*Insert Line Break Here*

Anabel slowly walked through the doors of the "Legend Majesty" hotel where here fellow Brains waited for her patiently with Scott looking emotionally broken.

"What happened?" Greta asked when she noticed the look on her face.

"The young mind is unstable," Spenser said wisely. "I take she is going through a lot of emotional pain."

Anabel merely walked over to Scott and sat down next to him in the lobby. "We need to talk, Scott," she said.

He laughed. "So you figured out who the last brain is, Anabel? I'm quite surprised that nobody recognized him, although I think Spenser has his suspicions. He's always one to take things slowly and figure things out quickly." She just nodded. "I'm guessing right now that you told him." Another nod was the response. "He went through a lot of pain. After the last Masters Tournament four years ago, he was betrayed by the ones closest to him. It's not my story to tell."

"I asked him about why he couldn't return my feelings and he said it was because his heart was only filled with revenge," she said slowly. "However, even under his dark façade and the hatred surrounding his heart, I could tell that he does have feelings for me. I now have a new goal in this tournament. That is to aid his revenge and punish his traitors."

"So Anabel, did you figure out his name?" Noland asked. "He's quite the powerful fellow." He was the only one left able to talk as it took all of the other brains to restrain Greta. She had seen Anabel hurt and immediately attempted to break off and punish Ash without the full story. Currently, Spenser was trying to calm her down, but it wasn't going so well.

Anabel hesitated on this, but then remembered that she promised that she wouldn't tell them about him yet. "That's for me to know and for you to find out. He's not very social, kind of like Lucy."

Somehow, Spenser managed to calm down Greta and they headed off to their rooms after they took their keys from Scott.

* * *

"Max, are you sure you're ready for this tournament?" May asked, concerned for her little brother.

"Of course I am," he responded. "I've been training for weeks I can't let that go to waste!"

Brock, the wise one of the group, spoke up. "That Pikachu didn't even look winded after your battle! Also, I think I heard some explosions as we were getting out of the forest."

"Tch. Whoever this guy is, he better get ready to face the wrath of me, Paul," Paul said. After they kicked out Ash from their group, Paul sort of replaced him. He was still a "lone wolf" type of person at the time, but slowly adapted to the attention he got from them. Over time, he grew to like it. "Those explosions were probably the Frontier Brains making quick work of him. Besides, it's just you, Max. I don't know how you won a regional conference with your level of skill, but I can tell it was a fluke." One thing that didn't change about Paul was his terrible disposition. That was what the group had to get used to and whenever he made some sort of snide remark, they just brushed it off.

"Well, if you'd like to see this person and test his skills, then be my guest," Max said. He was shattered by his defeat, no longer the confident young, naïve trainer he used to be. All this happened within the span of a few minutes. "If other people in this tournament are as good as him, then there's no chance that I'll be able to even get past the preliminaries."

"It's okay, Max," Misty said in a comforting voice. "You'll do just fine."

"I think we should all retire for tonight," Brock said. "It's getting late and we want to get up tomorrow nice and early so we can train, right?" True, it was getting to a late hour and if they wanted to have a chance against against General, they would need to train their butts off.

"Okay," Max conceded.

* * *

**Me: … and done! Finally got chapter one finished.**

**Anabel: Why can't you accept my heart, Ash?! Why?!**

**Me: Geez, calm down, Anabel. His heart is closed and broken. He still needs time to heal. About four years on top of a mountain can do things to you. I honestly don't know if I should just skip to the opening ceremony and omit the training days or not. I'll put up a poll.**

**Scott: You know, you really hurt Anabel. We could barely restrain Greta from trying to kill Ash.**

**Ash: *Makes aura sphere in hand* What was that?**

**Scott: *Silence* N-nothing, Ash, nothing. Go back to training.**

**Me: Anyways, this chapter is also pretty short. Only nine pages and 3800 words! I hope to make it at least 15 pages and 6000 words later on. This chapter was short because this was just kind of like an opening chapter.**

**Scott: O… kay? So what about it?**

**Me: Just informing the readers. Is an author not allowed to do that? Or do I have to chase you away with Salamence?**

**Scott: Th-there's no problem. Y-you can do what you want.**

**Me: Thank you. Please review if you have something to say. Favorite if you liked it. Don't forget to R&R.**

**Ash: Okay, we know the drill. But I'd like to know what happened four years ago at the last Masters Tournament.**

**Me: All in good time, Ash, all in good time. Goodbye. Michael out**

**Anabel: *Sobs* I'm- I'm heartbroken. Wahh!**


End file.
